Son's first turkey - Youth hunt

[TURKEYSLAYER]

My son JD with his first turkey. Taken Sunday of the youth hunt.
This bird is sporting an 11" beard, 1" spurs and weights in at 24 pounds.
In 26 years of turkey hunting I have never taken a comparable bird, one proud father here...




Snowy opening morning double...
My good friend Rod with his first turkey taken opening day, a nice Jake.
And my bird is sproting a 9" beard.

hope everyone else did as well
Jake

[AtItAgain]

Great looking birds. Congrats to all.

[beardbuster]

NICE!!! It's good to see some guys whacking these toms.

[Limbhanger]

Great job, that is a really nice bird.

[spit&drum]

great birds, there is going to be a lot of guys this weekend get your spots mapped out now.

[Art Vandeley]

Way to go guys!

Mitch

[Don Becker]

Very nice birds. Congratulations all around. Don

[sliverpicker]

Great bird and pic of JD! Nice job guys

[BlacktailBowhunter]

Nice birds. It is great to see the kids successfull too.

[HonkerKnocker]

Way to go man...Those are three darn good looking toms...nice job!!!

[CombinationLicense]

Awesome Job

Nice looking birds and memories for a lifetime

"CL"

[TURKEYSLAYER]

The story,
Opening day of the youth hunt we had a group of birds put to bed the night before, behind the fence on private property, so we had to work them on to NF land. Well you guessed it them birds can read, they were not going to cross the fence. We headed back to camp for breakfast. At 10:00 we found the birds had moved onto NF land and were gobbling to every call I made. My son being a south paw had to reposition him self for the shot BIG MISTAKE they seen him move, game over. Later that day we re-located them again. Had two of them coming to the call but this time we are setup only a 100 yards off the road, you guess it - truck drives by. That night we were lucky the birds went to roost on public ground. We tucked them in and said good night.
Sunday greets us at 4:00 am after a quick cup of coffee and a donut we are off to the roost sight. I let him gobble for a while before hitting him with a couple soft tree yelps, he goes ballistic. We could here him fly down and continues to gobble I gave him two sets of yelps and a couple clucks. My brother says "he's running right at me" at about fifteen yards I can see his head above the log we were sitting near, and told my son to take him. He touches the trigger on the 12ga Mossburg and dumps him with a 2oz load of number 5's at twelve yards. Funny thing was the other birds just keep gobbling and coming. Looks like Tuesday will be a great opener.
Monday a roll around it’s a day of firewood gathering and camp chores, everything is fairly quiet the birds are not talking much, then it starts to snow go figure it April right? Again Monday night birds roost on public ground right between to other camps. Great we will have computation in the morning. May the best caller win.
Tuesday finds us at 4:00 am, after coffee and donuts we head to the roost. To our surprise no one else got up we have the birds to our self. The snow and high winds must have kept everyone else snuggled in there warm sacks. The birds start gobbling right on time we let them gobble a while and hit them with tree yelps. They answer again this time we have hens answer also. The hens start pitching down from the trees to within 20 yards of us. First one then three then the hole flock, they are trying to out call the mystery hen they cant find. One hen is standing on a log at 20 yards and going to town. I finally put down the box call and switch to the mouth call. I can here the gobbler in the canyon gobbling his head off when he finally shows him self. He is in full strut and coming in slowly. All of the sudden three hens run past us from behind and join him at 45 yards. My son is saying take him! Dad take him! But I have to wait for the hens to clear. My son being a lefty and sitting to my right and the gobbler to my left he has no shot. The hens finally move off the left giving me the clear shot I to touch the trigger on my Mossburg and take him at 45 yards with a 2oz load of number 5's. Seconds later my buddy Rod takes a fine Jake, I had no clue was even there. So we double up on opening day. What a way to get the season off to a good start.